Book Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genre: Young Adult

Plot: Hadley is having a bad day. She is on her way to England, where her dad is marrying a woman she's never met; then she misses her flight. Just when it looks like things will never look up, she meets Oliver, a British boy who happens to be on her flight. They bond during the flight, but are separated as they enter the airport. Will Hadley and Oliver find each other? Is it meant to be?

Pros:

• It was an easy read. And not in an "I'm so glad I was able to read this book quickly, because it sucked" way. It was just so quirky and interesting that I wanted to keep reading so I could find out what happened when Hadley and Oliver got off the plane.
• Even though their relationship progressed very quickly, I loved the chemistry between Hadley and Oliver.
• Parent-daughter relationships of any kind are important.
• Hadley was a bookworm.

Cons:

• I found a typo.
• I feel like the book dwelt too much in the past (which ok it makes sense but there were just so many flashbacks).

Favorite Quotes:

• “Love is the strangest, most illogical thing in the world.”
• “There's a formula for how long it takes to get over someone, that it's half as long as the time you've been together.” 
• “Hadley didn't know it was possible to miss someone who's only a few feet away, but there it is.” 

My Thoughts: This was a great book. I started it about a zillion years ago (ok, last year), back when I was still ok with downloading books illegally. When I came to my senses and started supporting the industry I plan to join, I deleted all of my illegal books off of my computer, and this book sat on my "currently reading" on Goodreads for a long time. But when I picked it up the other day from the library, it was like I'd never put it down. It was that easy to get back into, and that easy to reconnect with the characters. I actually cared for these characters, and that's a big deal. The end was great and made me really happy. I'm looking forward to reading more Jennifer E. Smith (Jennifer Smith? Not sure which is actually "proper") books soon!

Links:
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Jennifer E. Smith

Book Review: The Neighbor (A Short Story) by Dean Koontz

My Rating: ★★★

Plot: Malcolm and Amalia are siblings, and each other's best friend. One night, they both notice some odd activity going on in the house next door. However, the owner of that house had died months earlier. Assuming they had new neighbors, the kids went to take a look. What happened next was an experience so haunting that neither of them ever spoke of it again.

Pros:

• It was a nice, scary story that I could read quickly
• I loved the siblings' bond, especially since their parents were awful to them
• It faces a tough issue that's very real today, even though this story was set many decades ago
• Dean Koontz wrote it and I love him

Cons: 

• It felt forced. I know short stories are supposed to be short, but this seemed like something that needed to be a bit longer. Maybe another few pages or so.
• It deviated from his normal style in a way that hurt the story, rather than help it

Favorite quote(s):

• “Amalia insisted he wasn’t cold, but only wounded by life and emotionally isolated.” 
• "One of the good things about being twelve or younger is that you tend to believe that you'll live forever. Therefore, you take stupid risks with little hesitation, and sometimes the risk pays off. Except when it doesn't."

My Thoughts: It was ok. It wasn't spectacular. It wasn't phenomenal. It was ok. And it makes me sad to admit that, because he's my favorite author. However, it's really short so if you have an hour or so to kill, it might be worth the read.

Links

Goodreads
Amazon

Dean Koontz

Book Review: The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

My Rating: ★★★★

Plot: Lennie is used to hanging back and watching the show that is life, with her sister Bailey by her side for every moment. When Bailey dies, Lennie no longer has her other half around to help her see things straight in life. Suddenly, she finds herself very interested in boys-- two boys in particular: Toby, who was her sister's boyfriend; and Joe, the new kid in school who is also a musical prodigy who grew up in France. Lennie discovers that it's hard to balance her feelings for the two of them-- Toby is probably the only person who understands her grief, while Joe has only known her without her sister and accepts her just the way she is. Lennie must sort out her feelings and come to terms with her grief, and her newfound singularity, if she is to keep all hearts intact.

Pros:

• It takes place in "nothern Northern California" (she actually says that), and I'm from Siskiyou County (basically as far north in California as you can get; people forget about us). I'm not sure where exactly this book takes place, if anywhere in particular (the town the book takes place in is fictional), but the eccentric people and the forest-y feel to the story made me really happy. I actually wrote Jandy Nelson to ask if she had any particular place in mind, but I'm not sure if I'll get an answer any time soon, with her new book coming out in two weeks and whatnot. Ok I'm rambling.
• Grief happens. And it's confusing. Everyone grieves in their own way. And that was very real in this book.
• Her stoner uncle, Big, was hilarious. 
• She's a band geek and a bookworm. Her favorite book is Wuthering Heights and she actually uses that as a foundation of her romantic knowledge and that's adorable. I love it.
• The notes at the beginnings and ends of chapters.
• I think I got butterflies when I was reading about her kisses with Joe? It was just too cute. 
• This book made me really, really happy. Even with the underlying sadness in the plot, it made me so happy.
• The hotel room in the middle of the forest. I want to go there. I wonder if that's a real thing? I hope it is. If I ever get a reply from the author, I'm asking her.

Cons:

• I wish there had been more about Big. 
• Lennie's friend was kind of a twat.
• What is walk-reading? Or read-walking? 
• It gave me feels. Feels are gross.

Favorite Quote(s):

• "You can tell your story any way you damn well please. It's your solo."
• “The sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet.”
• “I wish my shadow would get up and walk beside me.” 
• “Each time someone dies, a library burns.” 
• “The.
  World.
  Is.
  Not.
  A.
  Safe.
  Place.” 
• “The Color Of Extraordinary.” 
• “Let me just unsubscribe to my own mind already, because I don't get any of it.” 

My Thoughts: As I inch my way into the world of YA lit (I was strictly adult fiction until just recently, unless I read enough 5-star reviews to convince me otherwise), I'm trying to find out which books work for me, and which ones don't. If I only ever read YA books that made me feel like this book made me feel, I think I wouldn't stop reading YA. This book was adorable. It was sad, it was funny, it was so amazingly raw and heartfelt. And it was real. The characters were so real. They could have been me or my sisters or my friends or anyone. And I love that. I think I recently said that about another book, but really, relatable characters just make me so... satisfied? I don't know. Anyway. This book was really great, and I'm thrilled that she's releasing another book this month. I might even pre-order it because I'm so excited about it. If you haven't read this book yet and you're into YA, read it. Seriously, you won't regret it.

Links

Goodreads

Amazon
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Book Depository
Jandy Nelson

Book Review: Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult [SPOILERS]

My Rating: ★★★½ 

Plot: Willow O'Keeffe is born with  osteogenesis imperfecta ("brittle bone disease"), and spends the first years of her life casted, splinted, and essentially broken. When the family decides to take a trip to Disney World together, Willow trips and falls and has another break. However, since they are in an unfamiliar hospital, the doctors do not have her records and must assume her breaks are signs of abuse, and her parents are arrested. Once the facts are all cleared up, the girls were reunited with their parents, but their father, Sean, was furious. He got a lawyer, with the intention of suing the hospital for the way they were treated. However, the lawyer told him that they were acting well within their rights and that there wasn't a case there-- but there might be a case somewhere else. A case that would change the way people looked at their family forever. A case that would mean that Charlotte would have to basically say that she wished her daughter had never been born.

Pros:

• It was a page-turner. I found myself unable to stop reading (I even accidentally took a forty-five minute lunch break, when I was only supposed to take thirty minutes) because I got so caught up in the story.
• It was written like they were all telling the story to Willow. I liked that.
• I could relate to the characters. Maybe not in the medical sense, but I Charlotte and Sean's marriage was very realistically written, the little disputes about money and the small habits they had with each other. All of it. And Amelia. Oh my goodness I just wanted to hug her and say "shhh bb it'll be ok, just come here shhh" and not like in a creepy way, I just really wanted to make her feel better.
• It shows the underlying problems in a family with an already big problem. The things no one sees. The things people don't really want to see. All of the casseroles that NO ONE is going to eat.
• As always, the story lines and multiple points of few gave the story a lot of variance while still showing connections in the journeys along the way.
• There are so many good quotes in this book. So many.

Cons:

• I basically knew Willow was going to die from page one. Well, ok, from whenever I found out she was sick. 1) the cover showed a girl DROWING IN THE POND, and 2) I knew the trial was going to be this HUGE fiasco all for nothing. She had to die. It only made sense for Picoult's method of storytelling.
• It was really anti-climactic and then it exploded. Like ok cool they won the trial (of course), and then the last page punched you in the face. Some readers might like that, but the ending really just didn't do it for me. Especially because I predicted the outcome.

Favorite Quote(s):

•  “When you love someone, you say their name different. Like it's safe inside your mouth.” 
• “I always hated when my scars started to fade, because as long as I could still see them, I knew why I was hurting.” 
• “Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was.” 
• “There are kinds of pain that you can't speak out loud.” 

My Thoughts: This was a good book, if you like tear-jerkers. I will admit that I cried a few times while reading this book. Babies in pain is such a sad subject. I really liked the lawyer's side-story, even with the sad ending to her journey to find her birth-parents. Overall, it was a good book. I think maybe the reason I rated it so low was because 1) it was predictable and 2) it just ended the way it did. I know that Picoult does this with her books. I know. I get that. But ugh. RIGHT IN THE FEELS.

Links

Goodreads

Amazon
B&N
Book Depository
Jodi Picoult

Book Review: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver [SPOILERS]

My Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Plot: For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—"Cupid Day"—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night. [click the link above to continue reading]

My Thoughts: [Contains Spoilers, I Think?] I knew Sam was going to die in the end. I knew that. So why did the end of the book affect me like it did? Every time Sam woke up to start February 12 all over again, I was relieved. This time she will live, I thought to myself. When she did live, I was thrilled. She didn't deserve to die. I didn't want her to die. She put all of this effort into fixing things, which meant that she couldn't die. Right? Wrong. She was just making things right, setting things the way they really needed to be, before she died. And that hit me like a brick wall. All throughout the book, she kept saying "You never know when it's your last day" or something along those lines, and although she got to redo her last day seven times, no one is really that lucky. No one gets a second chance to make things right before the end. That really made me think hard about my life and how it impacts those lives around me.

I felt myself relating with all of the characters in this book in some way or another. The characters were so incredibly relateable that I felt like they could have been my friends or my classmates. That really made this book so real to me. I couldn't put it down.

I'm glad that I read this book. I wasn't going to because I read a bad (spoiler free) review on it when I bought the book. But I am so glad I read it anyway. I really was a great book, and I will definitely be adding it to my list of go-to recommendations.

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn [SPOILERS]

My Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Plot: On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media--as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents--the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter--but is he really a killer? [click the link above to read more]

My Thoughts: [WARNING: Contains Spoilers!] This book was a trip. I wrote predictions along the way: Amy's parents did it... Nick did it... Amy ran away. I had no idea that my final prediction was the correct one. When I finished the first act of the book, I actually had to go back and reread a few pages because it just didn't make sense that she would disappear on her own. As I got to know Amy-- Real Amy, not Diary Amy-- I was sickly fascinated by the fact that someone could be that twisted. Once I found out that Amy was alive and very much okay, I couldn't put the book down. I wanted to know why she ran, and I wanted to know how Nick was going to react when she inevitability came home. I honestly thought Nick was going to kill her because everyone already thought he did anyway. I was totally blindsided by the ending. I cannot imagine having to live with someone that insane for the rest of my life, and Nick is totally trapped with Amy forever. That is just crazy. 

I really, really enjoyed this book, and I cannot wait to see the movie when it comes out. I might even (dare I say it?) watch it in theaters. The book was that good. If you haven't read Gone Girl, you should read it. Now!

This book was recommended to me by Fatma over at the3gryffindors.tumblr.com

Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Annotated Centennial Edition) by Frank Baum

My Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Plot: A beloved classic comes to life with this beautifully illustrated annotated edition on the 100th anniversary of Oz. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the quintessential American fairy tale, but also one of the most controversial children's books ever published. Michael Patrick Hearn, the world's leading Oz scholar, provides a spellbinding annotated edition that illuminates all of Oz's numerous contemporary references, provides fascinating character sources, and explains the actual meaning of the word "Oz." A facsimile of the rare 1900 first edition appears with the original drawings by W. W. Denslow--scrupulously reproduced to mimic their correct colors, using a different color for each region of Oz--as well as twenty-five previously unpublished illustrations. In addition, Hearn provides an extensive bibliography, compiling Baum's published work, every notable Oz edition, and the stage and motion-picture productions from 1939's The Wizard of Oz to the 1974 Broadway smash The Wiz. The result is a classic to rival Baum's own, and a book no family's library can do without. 90 black-and-white, 56 color, and two-color illustrations throughout

My Thoughts: This book was just as great this time around as it was when I read it in second grade. Dorothy is such a fun character, and the book version of this specific book is much better than the movie (although the movie is FAB). I love the annotated version because it has basically one page of notes for every page of story, and I learned a lot about Frank Baum and his inspirations and a lot of the references in his books. Did you know that he (allegedly) wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz without bothering to go back and edit or read it before publishing?? That's crazy. Anywho. I loved this version of the book, and if you're a collector or you just like reading factoids while you read a story, you should definitely check this book out!

Book Review: In the End by Demitria Lunetta

My Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Plot: The thrilling conclusion to In the After, the survival story of Amy and Baby, set in a near future where Earth has been overrun by vicious, predatory creatures. It’s been three months since Amy escaped New Hope, and she’s been surviving on her own, like she did in the After. Until one day, her former fellow Guardian’s voice rings out in her earpiece. And in a desperate tone, Kay utters the four words Amy had hoped she would never hear: Dr. Reynolds has Baby. Now it’s a race against time, for Baby is in imminent danger, her life threatened by the malevolent doctor who had helped start the end of the world. In order to save Baby, Amy must make her way to Fort Black, a prison-turned-survivor-colony, where she will need to find Ken, Kay’s brother. He alone holds the key to Baby’s survival. One small slip-up on this quest could spark a downward spiral that would not only cost Baby and Amy their lives, but threaten the very survival of the people in the After

My Thoughts: I was sort of let down by this book. I was looking forward to this for so long, and when I read it, the wow factor just wasn't there for me. The time in Fort Black seemed to d r a g o u t, but once Amy and Brenna escaped and the action really picked up, I flew threw the book. I loved Jacks and Amy's relationship. He just seemed right for her, and I think that if Demitria writes another book they would probably end up together. I was a little confused about how Baby just randomly knew who Amy was when, four chapters earlier, she had no idea who Amy was. Unless she was faking it. I just really hope they write another book because I HAVE ALL THE QUESTIONS.

Review: Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet

My Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Plot: As a little girl, Jane has no one. Her mother Vivienne Margaux, the powerful head of a major New York theater company has no time for her. But she does have one friend--Michael--and no one can see him but her. But Michael can't stay with Jane forever, and on her eighth birthday, her imaginary friend must leave her. When Jane is in her thirties... (click the link to continue reading)

My Thoughts: This. Book. Was. Great. At first I was like, "Woah, that's weird, she's attracted to her imaginary friend". But as I continued reading, it became so much more than that. Not only is this book about taking control of one's life and making one's own dreams a reality (ok, the last part is probably only used a little loosely), but it's also about a mother-daughter relationship and how some mothers interact (or don't) with their children, even as their children grow up. This book was really great, and I just recently found out that it was a movie, so I'll probably watch that soon too. If you haven't read this one, READ IT! It's short and sweet and you'll fly through it.

Recommended to me by inserttypicalnonsensehere.tumblr.com

Review: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

My Rating: ★★★½

Goodreads Plot: Where there's a will, there's a way—and Sam Westing has left quite a will!

One fateful day, sixteen people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. To their surprise, the will turns out to be a contest, challenging the heirs to find out who among them is Westing's murderer. Forging ahead, through blizzards, burglaries, and bombings, the game is on. Only two people hold all the clues. One of them is the Westing heir. The other is you!

My Thoughts: (I rated this book 4 on Goodreads because they don't have half-stars and I didn't want to under-rate it) It took me a while to get into this book. The format was weird, and I was in sort of a funk when I started it. But I'm so glad that I finished it, because the twist at the end made it totally worth it. There were a lot of characters in this book, so it was hard to keep track at first, and I found myself getting confused a lot with who was who. It wasn't a great book, but it wasn't horrible either.

Review: A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin

My Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Plot: The summer Hattie turns 12, her predictable smalltown life is turned on end when her uncle Adam returns home for the first time in over ten years. Hattie has never met him, never known about him. He's been institutionalized; his condition involves schizophrenia and autism. Hattie, a shy girl who prefers the company of adults, takes immediately to her excitable uncle, even when the rest of the family -- her parents and grandparents -- have trouble dealing with his intense way of seeing the world. And Adam, too, sees that Hattie is special, that her quiet, shy ways are not a disability.

My Thoughts: This book was really sad! I wasn't really expecting to like it because it's a book for preteens, but it was actually very good. It was very funny, and very true-to-life. I would've liked to hear more about Hattie's friend from the circus (her name escapes me and I don't have the book any more). But overall it was really good, and one I'd probably recommend to my younger sisters for a light, easy read.